The Edges in the Middle, I: Báyò Akómoláfé and john a. powell
Photo: Mbari, a sacred house of the Igbo people (of Nigeria) created to honor Ala, the Earth deity, and left to naturally decay in acknowledgment of the cyclical stage of destruction; Courtesy of Nairaland.
For The Wild is honored to present a series of conversation entitled, “The Edges in the Middle,” in collaboration with UC Berkeley’s Othering and Belonging Institute. In the first of these conversations, Báyò Akómoláfé speaks with john a. powell, Director of the Othering & Belonging Institute.
Speaking on the theme “When ‘just getting along’ isn't enough: Is belonging possible in a world rooted in othering?,” Báyò and john contemplate the ontological weight of our desire for belonging. How might we learn how to belong together? Articulating both the harsh realities of modern day division and the simultaneous reality of our connection to each other and to the earth, Báyò and john examine what it means to be “other” and to invite in the “monstrous” and the “strange.”
The conversation offers deep provocations urging listeners to heed the edges, cracks, and fissures that expand our notions of what is possible. It is here that we might find openings and with them the invitation of the trickster. Calling us to consider play as a decolonial gift, how might we dream our way to new worlds? As john reminds us, nothing is solid. Play allows us to create anew, to widen the fissures and fractures of our experiences of empire.
“Without these departures, belonging is impossible. Without the going away, we may not be able to meet ourselves as if for the first time.”
“The Edges in the Middle” is a series of conversations between Báyò Akómoláfé and thought companions like john a. powell, V, Naomi Klein, and more. These limited episodes have been adapted from Báyò’s work as the Global Senior Fellow at UC Berkeley's Othering & Belonging Institute. In this role, Báyò has been holding a series of public conversations on issues of justice and belonging for the Institute's Democracy & Belonging Forum, which connects and resources civic leaders in Europe and the US who are committed to bridging across difference to strengthen democracy and advance belonging in both regions and around the world. Báyò's conversations encourage us to rethink justice, hope, and belonging by sitting amidst the noise, not trying to cover it up with pleasant rhythms. To learn more about the Democracy & Belonging Forum, visit democracyandbelongingforum.org.
Describing The Edges in the Middle, Bayo Akomolafe writes, “These explorations are not ‘safe’. These encounters will probably be offensive (we hope they are). This is not a preaching to the choir. This is a jumping-off-from-tightropes into potentially risky and emancipatory waters. This is a material inquiry of the unsayable, a leaning into the places we are not supposed to go to, a reconsideration of the ordinary, and a refusal to reify anything touched as finished, declared, transmitted, or final. As a ritual of inquiry at the end of the world, this is a material-discursive-pedagogic attempt at breaking through the sensory monoculture of compliance and cyclicity. Most importantly, this is a call for you to create-destroy with us, to with-ness, to greet more-than-human entities, to be pierced through, to be undone.” With this, we encourage you to listen to these conversations with curiosity and open exploration. How might we grow from challenge, from inquiry? What might the trickster bring to the table?
♫ The music featured in this episode is "Dauntless" and "Presence" by Sitka Sun, generously provided by The Long Road Society Record Label.
Photo of Báyò Akómoláfé
Photo of john a. powell
Episode References
Othering & Belonging Institute
Quote by Chinua Achebe: “The impatient idealist says: 'Give me a place t...”
The Dawn of Everything by David Graeber and Dabide Wengrow
Staying with the Trouble by Donna Haraway
Reading Recommendations
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